Re: Awkward Situation

I don't get where anyone is suggesting that Mr. Shea lie to his client.

If it is in reference to my post, let me assure you, I wasn't suggesting that at all! If it read that way, I whole-heartedly apologize to Mr. Shea and the rest of you for my poor choice of words.

My point more general, and perhaps not completely valid for this issue. The lying is usually done by the weasels. I assumed that Mr. Shea is NOT a weasel, because he's concerned enough about what happened to ask for advice here. The crux of my post was to emphasize that he outwardly accept responsibility for his part in ANY failure, because that's the professional thing to do. Don't badmouth the gear, don't point the finger at someone else, don't do anything that makes you look LIKE the weasel. If you could have done something better, own up to that. But certainly I wasn't suggesting that he own up to things that were not his responsibility. Unless someone directly asks, "Well, who did what and why are they responsible for what happened?", don't go stomping around muttering, "If so-and-so hadn't done such-and-such....". (And I'm not suggesting that's what he did, either. It is a common response, though.) This is a good idea under almost any circumstance. He could just say that he would have like to have tested it one more time, and too bad it happened. To save face and possibly the relationship, he could offer to cover the cost of the rental gear, if he thought that was appropriate.

Being right is good, but being right at the expense of the relationship means you lose the client. You have to decide which is more important, and how big of a deal it really was, in 20/20 hindsight. After a few weeks, those huge "screw ups", if they are screw ups or just equipment failure, aren't so painful and don't seem like that big of a deal. But pointing the finger lingers, and that sometimes is harder to overcome than a failure.

Sorry again if I at all seemed like I was suggesting he lie to his client! That was certainly NOT my intention!

debe